Thanksgiving Wood Projects to Make

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, 2026, which leaves time for a host gift or a piece for the table. Each project below comes from one of our build ideas, with the rough size and wood from that idea. The ideas are starting points to design yourself, and their pictures are concept images, not real builds.

Host gifts

Balancing Wine Bottle Holder: a single walnut board, about 6 1/2” long and 13/16” thick, with a 45° foot and a 1 1/4” hole near the top. It holds a sealed wine bottle at an angle, so the pair seems to float. The trick is where the hole sits: the combined weight has to land over the foot.

Laser-Engraved Coaster Set with Holder: four engraved round coasters, about 4” across, that stack in a small tab-and-slot holder, all cut from 1/4” Baltic birch plywood on a diode or CO2 laser, with thin cork underneath. The idea’s own note: for cups, not food. Seal with a water-resistant finish. Laser: never leave it running, keep an extinguisher in reach, and with an open-frame laser everyone in the room wears eyewear rated for its wavelength. See laser and CNC shop safety.

For the table

Walnut LED Tealight Holder: a walnut bar about 12” long, 3 1/2” wide and 1 5/16” thick, with three pockets sized for battery-powered LED tealights, drilled with a Forstner bit. For battery LED tealights only, never real candles. Wood can catch fire. Keep button-cell batteries away from children.

Cedar Tabletop Planter: a small western red cedar box for succulents, about 14” long, 5” wide and 5” tall, with a plain top trim and short feet to lift it off the surface. It can be cut from a couple of cedar fence boards with a circular saw.

Scrap-friendly Thanksgiving pieces

If you are working from offcuts rather than new boards, these live build ideas stay small:

• Fence-picket porch turkey: a porch turkey from cedar fence pickets — cut the body and wings from scrap picket lengths.
• Laser-cut leaf napkin rings: thin Baltic birch leaf rings; nest several on one laser sheet from leftover plywood.
• Maple leaf trivet: a single maple leaf trivet from a scrap board wide enough for the silhouette.
• Thanksgiving centerpiece riser: a low solid-top oak (or painted pine) riser — short legs from leftover stock.
• Scrap-wood mantel trees: staggered scrap boards for small mantel trees (also works for early Christmas dressing).
• Hardwood acorn mantel sitters and wood-slice stacked pumpkins: small mantel pieces from short hardwood scraps or slices.
• Wooden fall leaf wall hanging: a hangable leaf silhouette from scrap hardwood or plywood.

Keep the tip’s existing food-contact and LED/candle notes when you link those ideas. For more scrap-friendly cards year-round, see scrap wood projects.

After dinner

CNC Cribbage Board: a two-player walnut long board, about 20 1/2” by 3 1/2” and 3/4” thick, with two tracks of peg holes running up and back, plus a game hole and start holes. It needs a hobby CNC router, which drills the holes from an SVG file. Pegs are small parts, so keep them away from young children.

Tools for these

• Table saw push blocks: our tool picks for the rips on the tealight holder.
• Clamps: our tool picks for holding the planter while you fasten it.
• Laser engraving: our tool picks for engraving the coasters.

Getting a head start on Christmas

Once the table is set, the next deadline is Christmas. See Christmas gift projects to make (and maybe sell) for gifts that batch well, and laser engraver Christmas gift ideas if you have a laser.

Looking for more ideas? Browse all our build ideas.